HEAD COACH Rob Webber stressed that the concession of a last-minute, length-of-the-field try will not be criticised in Jersey Reds’ analysis room this week – despite it denying them what appeared to be a nailed-on Championship ‘nilling’.
Bedford Blues saved themselves from the embarrassment of a scoreless outing with a solitary touchdown at St Peter on Saturday, registered in the final play after a controversial turnover from a home scrum.
Jake Garside’s 95-metre run resulted in a 45-5 success for the hosts, following a ruthless and clinical display in both attack and defence.
The Blues were starved of opportunities to impress as Jersey carded one of their largest winning margins as a professional club – taking them to the top of the second tier with ten wins from ten this season.
‘What’s really pleasing is that up until 79 minutes and 55 seconds, we were defensively sound,’ said Webber. ‘That was good and the reason I’m proud about that is we spoke this week about it – being physical and getting our defence firing again. The boys responded really well and those who played today did the job.’
Asked if conceding points at the death was tough to take, the former England international said: ‘Not really. If you watch it back I think we’ll see that he [Garside] slapped it out of our scrum-half’s hands illegally. The referee missed it, which happens, and he was a real speedster who’s gone the length of the field. From 45-0 to 45-5 I can take it. If it had been from 3-0, it would have been a real sickener.’
Ealing’s journey to Caldy was postponed due to a frozen pitch, leaving the Reds three points clear of their title rivals, who they meet in London on Christmas Eve.
Webber remains grounded, though.
‘They’re wise enough to know they’ve got a game in hand,’ he said. ‘But what this result has done is it means we’re going there in a strong position, rather than having more ground to make up if we’d lost today.’
